


How Light the Darkness

by Winterstar



Series: The Life Series [7]
Category: No Fandom
Genre: Deals with a serious injury to Neal’s spine and back. While this story is NOT a permanent injury it, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-14
Updated: 2013-11-14
Packaged: 2018-09-17 08:03:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9312794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterstar/pseuds/Winterstar
Summary: The Life Series: this probably comes after the third story. Neal starts to see some light in his darkened world





	

The world is dark, yet the sun scorches to blindness. He looks toward the horizon and wonders how the heat of the sun feels because he only touches the darkness that encompasses him. He gazes out the window of his room, bright and light and brilliant. He finds no solace there, not ever. It has been too many months and too many days that he has been confined to the bed. He wants to find a way out, he want to believe there is a place for him again in the world, but he knows he is just ancillary now. He has no place, no ticket to the ride. He has become secondary when his life has always been about being the middle, the center, the fulcrum.

Yet, this new lease on life, this new placement he has accepted offers him hope and he should take it. It is the first time he’s felt warmth in all these bitter months. It is the first time he’s breathed easier and lighter. He has a home now, a place to call his own. But he wonders if it will be long lasting, if it can be long lasting. Once Peter finds out the truth, once Peter knows the lies and the deceit then he will be lost again, forsaken and alone.

So he takes these moments lying in his recovery bed, with Satchmo at his feet – he takes them and breathes easier and quieter than before. The anxiety drains away and he becomes a part of the rhythm of the Earth, at peace with the rotation of the day, at Zen with his life for just this moment.

Satchmo looks up at him as he sighs, then gently lies his head on Neal’s ankles. He gazes up with his round dark eyes and, for the first time, Neal does not fear the dark.  



End file.
